It’s been some time since I posted on my blog. I have been compelled during the events of the past several weeks to do some deep personal reflection. I wanted to share what I have reflected on, and what I will do. I also wanted to share some notes from a conversation that encouraged and enlightened me and might do similar for you as well.

I am

Guilty of temporary disgust at glimmers of systemic oppression

Guilty of momentary allyship rather than committed companionship

Guilty of celebrating diversity of community but not recognizing the disparity of each person’s opportunities

Guilty of sheltering in comfort, rather than exposing myself to different perspectives

I am privileged

I am a work in progress

I am an ally in training

I will

Seek to understand through education and conversation

Use my privilege to be a voice for those less fortunate

Listen more than I speak

Peacefully protest

Sign petitions

Donate

Vote

Act

To my black friends, colleagues, community members: I applaud your strength every day in every way. I see you and I stand with you.

“Jesus stood for people that others didn’t stand for. He stood by people that others didn’t stand with.” - Steven Furtick

______________________________________________

I found this livestream from Pastor Steven Furtick & Pastor John Gray titled “Become The Bridge” very good. I encourage you to watch it. Here’s some takeaways and quotes:

Sometimes to stand-up you have to first sit down

Silence is agreement. It’s not about race it’s about justice. Speak up.

Treat the alien and the stranger among you. “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”- Leviticus 19:32-34

If I celebrate the diversity of my church but never recognize the disparity, that’s hypocrisy.

Often times we see the image not the substance.

See the world through the lenses of grace.

Step into other people’s reality to feel what it’s like to be them.

If there was empathy, then we wouldn’t see this lack of humanity.

The idea of diversity versus inclusion. A lot of white pastors have black people in their worship team but not in their leadership. Do you have diversity in your leadership?

You’ve got to be able to embrace the totality of me so I can trust you with my soul. Because I’ve been carrying this pain for too long for you to be silent about the blackness that I have to experience every single day.

You can’t heal this at the legislative level. You can’t pass a law to heal someone’s heart. Only the Holy Spirit can heal someone’s heart.

When you lead it can’t be political, it’s personal.

Disparity is as dangerous as denial.

It might come out wrong but at least we’re talking. We’ve replaced this ability to converse with clicks and comments.

There are unbiblical actions in the Bible. Psalms where David Says things like “bash my enemies children against the rocks” - God allowed the human experience to exist in that way, like David’s personal journal without judgement and included it in the Bible so thousands of years later we can know it’s okay to be angry and do not sin.

We need to be okay to have the conversation and not shred each other’s character. White and black people are not monolithic.

When you’re in pain, the first thing you see is what you remember.

Jesus said things that threatened the establishment and got killed for it.

Don’t bring my god down to your frame of reference

Expose yourself ... can’t take my perspective from the view of people who don’t look like me from CNN

You are the light of the world means don’t be ignorant

Just because I haven’t experienced it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

Your presence changes the system

There’s an intentionality to diversity conversations

Guilt is not a strategy

Do we know the difference between guilt and repentance?

Repentance is change of direction in the Old Testament and change of your mind in the New Testament

All must ask, “What is in my heart about Black people?” If we’re going to change our minds we need to acknowledge what is there

Sin of omission - silence is co-signing the injustice

We cannot absolve any community of responsibility

This conversation should be the starting point of reconciliation

www.becomethebridge.com

Must educate yourself and have conversations

Unity is it uniformity

Compassion is core to empathy

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As opposed to doing a reflections and resolutions blog post which I've done the past few years, I've decided to share a formula that I've developed and I'm going to test out in 2019. My theme for 2019 is about giving my best to everyone. These activities will help me

As opposed to doing a reflections and resolutions blog post which I've done the past few years, I've decided to share a formula that I've developed and I'm going to test out in 2019. My theme for 2019 is about giving my best to everyone. These activities will help me accomplish that.

I call it the rule of thirds, but it's simply a mnemonic to remember areas of focus. It's built on several principles from stoic philosophy, modern thought, Biblical truths, historical wisdom, and common sense.

The 1/3, 10/30, 100/300 better every day formula

1 percent better every day

3 main things to get done today

10 minutes prayer and/or meditation

30 minutes reading

100 push-ups

300 sit-ups

1 percent better every day

"It can seem a little far fetched sometimes, making these grand assumptions out of such tiny details." - Mary Morstan "That's not quite right is it. In fact the little details are by far the most important." - Sherlock Holmes

As I wrote last year, the simplicity and sheer impossibility make this a great daily reminder to be better than yesterday.

Ryan Holiday's recent article on how to develop better habits references the concept of "atomic habits", a small habit that makes an enormous difference in your life.

Ryan references a story James Clear tells in his atomic habits book about how the British cycling team's maniacal focus on 1 percent improvements produced outstanding results.

There is not a separation between pleasure and work. Try to mix both in something called life.

Stay committed to your goals. Revise them every now and then.

Make lists. Create projects. Commit to actionable small goals and reward yourself once you've achieved them.

Less is more.

3 main things to get done today

“If you wish to improve... be content to be seen as ignorant or clueless about some things.” - Epictetus

Asking, "what are the 3 most important things that will make the biggest impact in my work or life today." And then do those things.

Do the hard things first. They usually aren't as "hard" as you thought they were.

Trick to help is to put them on the to do list early, and keep them visible (for me this is just writing them down in my notebook).

In 2018 I made a marked shift at work from individual contributor, to manager. I am smack dab in the middle of the "player-coach" role that HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos talks about in his blog post "From Individual Contributor to Manager". In 2019, my 3 things are even more poignant due to this big shift, and many of my 1% improvements need to come in this area.

10 minutes prayer / meditation daily

"The ancients did it. The top performers do it. You should do it." - Luke Tucker

I mention this in my post, Startups are Hard (#45). Meditation has been shown to help people stress less, focus more and even sleep better. Try the Headspace app, I've used that before and it's great.

I've been doing daily devotions and "quiet" time for over 20-years so it's ingrained in my process which I'm thankful for. When I don't start my day here, I feel out of sorts.

30 minutes reading

If I fancy myself a writer then great writers do 3 things: Consume lots of content, Curate the best of that, and Create new content.

This is what I do with Zero Daily and my aforementioned daily devotions reading the Bible.

100 push-ups + 300 sit-ups

"I like to sit back and enjoy the pain. I've earned it." - David Goggins

I'll lump these final two together as it's basically the same: focus on physical exercise and health. This 100/300 came from a story I remember my friend Ryan tell about a guy he knew who did 100 pushups a day and 300 sit-ups a day for a summer and they got to be in great shape.

I like to keep things simple with my workouts, and these exercises travel well. I only need a flat surface, with enough space and I'm good. So you can do these at a minimum in your hotel room if you're traveling and if you have little kids like me, do them while you're on kid duty - watch the kids play or the little one hangout in a rocker and do the 100/300 for the day.

Here's some quotes from Jesse Itzler's book Living With a Seal to motivate you (and me) to do your 100/300 and more today.

Every day, do something that makes you uncomfortable.

I don't think about yesterday. I think about today and getting better.

It doesn't have to be fun. It has to be effective.

If it want to be pushed to your limits, you have to train to your limits

I earned it. Now I'm going to enjoy it.

Everyday is a challenge, otherwise it's not a regular day.

If you can't do the basics, you can't do shit.

I'm on alert. High alert. Even when you don't think I'm on alert,
I'm on alert. Even right now, I'm on alert.

You can get through any workout because everything ends.

Don't get too comfortable. Ever.

If you're hungry, run faster. You'll be home quicker.

Be ready for anything at any time.

The tougher the conditions, the more I like my odds.

Fear is one of the best motivators. Anger is the other.

I don't celebrate victories, but I learn from failures.

If you don't challenge yourself, you don't know yourself.

I don't stop when I'm tired. I stop when I'm done.

If you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can't see yourself doing something, usually you can't achieve it.

The only easy day, was yesterday.

Bring your best every day

My family deserves my best every day.
My friends and co-workers deserve my best every day.
My neighbors deserve my best every day.
Strangers deserve my best every day.

By focusing on the details and the rule of thirds, I can improve my life and the life of those around me.

The 1/3, 10/30, 100/300 activities are not meant to be all-inclusive to life as in a complete recipe, more of a starting point or framework to build on.

Here's to becoming the best version of you in 2019.

"Turn one day into day one." - Anonymous

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I hate the term "newsletter".

It's actually quite inappropriately named.

Who wants to read or watch the news these days? It's that term "news", implying some douche (or collection of douches) are mindlessly ranting or repeating the prompters bidding on cable television.

Tobias was the lead product designer and art director at Spotify and from all accounts seems to be an all-around stud (he writes a weekly email titled DESK of Tobias van Schneider). According to Mailchimp "It’s everything a weekly email should be: fun, readable, full of useful information, and rich in personality."

So in the cause of renaming newsletters, and inspired by Tobias' hipster genius, I made a quick list of some alternate names for your, formerly known as newsletter, letter.

Ideas on what to call your anti-newsletter, newsletter

"Letters from a Friend",

"From the desk of [insert your name here]" (looking at you Tobias), "Writing, delivered frequently",

"Letters",

"Information you give a sh*t about", "Data, no dogma",
"Notes from my moleskine",

Here’s a quick high-level recap of what to expect: The 2018 Hacker Report is the largest survey ever conducted of the ethical hacking community with 1,698 respondents. It includes statistics and growth metrics around the hacker-powered security movement, insights into hacker motivations and mindset, and we spotlight some of our hackers.

Having met many members of the HackerOne community, I can say they are worthy of recognition for their talent and work. So if you see them in person, shake their hand. Thank them. High five them. Buy them coffee and get to know them a bit.

And remember, hackers are NOT criminals. They don't hide in shadows with hoodies staring at black screens all day (and night).

They're genuine, kind, caring humans. They donate their bounties at times, work together, take time to educate newbs (like me), and report vulnerabilities in the software we all use.

They are the biggest force that is making the internet safer. Every. Day.

I hope you enjoy reading it and seeing some of the personalities of the hacker community.

2017 Reflections:

What a year it has been. From life-changing events, to globe-trotting trips, to enjoying weekend family barbecues.

This is my annual post where I reflect on the prior year, and set some goals for the new year.

Happy New Year one and all!

2017 Reflections:

I became a Father. Olivia is nearly 1-year old. Life changed forever on January 14, 2017. I look at her and nothing else matters. I see my wife being "mom" and I love her more if that's even possible. The snuggle is real, and so are the diaper changes and lack of sleep.

I traveled quite a bit. Los Angeles (2x), San Francisco (9x), Las Vegas, Seattle, Detroit, Dallas, Washington D.C., New York City (2x), Amsterdam (2x), Groningen (2x), and Barcelona. Some with Olivia and Robyn, most by myself for work. Robyn and I did the math, Olivia will have been on 18 planes before her 1-year birthday. She’s our little adventurer.

Fall, it was good to see you again. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. All four of them, all experienced by yours truly. Quite the contrast from the eternal Hawaiian summer I experienced. Me likes it. Although I’ll always be a beach bum at heart, I’ve rediscovered the joy of cool weather, running in 40 degree weather, and curling up with a warm blanket on the couch snuggled up with my wife.

Being near family is extraordinary. I can't say enough about having them close by. The "I'm stopping by for a bit" to celebrating smaller holidays like St. Patty's Day, to having babysitters and being able to go on a date! It's great.

Making new friends is hard to do when you have an infant. While we’ve made some good friends here in Boise, I realize it’s so hard to develop relationships at this time. The daily routine when I'm not traveling is: work all day, spend time with Olivia from 5 - 6:30, then put her to bed, and watch a show or play a game with Robyn or work. It’s hard to get out because, we’ll there’s a 19 pound human in the other room with some pretty developed vocal chords that requires an adult to be nearby at all times. And don't get me started on the "how to get anything done in-between naps" realities.

Report on 2017 New Years Resolutions

When I wrote about my 2017 resolutions I was about 2-weeks shy of welcoming my daughter into the world and 2 months in my job at HackerOne.

So I chock up some of my aggressive new years resolutioning to hubris and the success of my 2016 resolutions.

If this was graded, I'd be barely passing with a "C". Maybe I should grade on a curve. The new father curve.

Here's my category-by-category review:

Family

Grade: A
I give myself an "A" here because all of these I accomplished. I am a dad to a precious little girl, I feel like I got the swaddle pretty good (the velcro ones were pretty baller I must say), and we traveled to Detroit, DC, Dallas, and to Europe with Olivia.

Become a father :)

Master the swaddle

Be prepared for traveling as a family with an infant

Take 3 family trips (one to Europe)

Physical

Grade: F
These goals were quite ambitious. I ran a 10K (yay me), I probably work out 2 days a week, I can do 8 muscle ups in a row, didn't pick up a hobby, and my plank game is weak.

Workout 4 to 5 days / week.

Do 20 muscle-ups in a row

Hold a 5-minute plank

Take up mountain biking or rock climbing as a hobby

Run a marathon with Robyn

Faith

Grade: C
Memorized (most) of Romans 5, didn't study John and Mark, did find a home church, have not had time to join a small group study.

Memorize Psalm 40 with Robyn

Study the books of John and Mark

Find a new home Church

Join a small group study

Writing

Grade: D
Ended up doing 1 post per quarter and didn't make time to pursue the guest posts. I wrote a lot here, here, here, and here though. :)

Write one personal blog post per month

Get four article by-lines published

Productivity

Grade: C
Did okay on the Netflix front, didn't touch Evernote, and kind of did the calendaring structure, but still testing that.

Maintain Netflix fast on weekdays (idea is to incorporate the best resolutions of the past that are now habits)

Organize my notes in Evernote

Refresh of day-to-day calendaring outline

Personal

Grade: D
Just didn't have much time to read in 2017 as I thought I was going to.

Read 36 books in 2017

Fast pop music for first 30-days of the year

2018 Resolutions

I decided this year to not keep the same structure as 2017 and choose just 3 categories to focus on for my published resolutions on the blog. That's not to say I won't be focusing on family, faith, etc.

Writing

This blog has been neglected. Shame on me. I will aim to write 1 post per month, and 2 guest post / published post. The late night work sessions have been commandeered by baby duty and work. But this is a meta skill after all and gosh darn it if I won't accomplish this goal.

Reading

Our Church is doing a read through the Bible in a year plan, and Robyn and I will be doing that with our Church family.

Work

Hone my skills as a content marketer. Less “petal to the metal”, more system / operations improvement, and continue my learning in the security field. Stretch goal: speak at a content-focused conference sharing something I've learned or a success I've enjoyed.

I was recently asked by a colleague if I had examples of a content brief that I could share. Here's the copy of my email that I wrote responding to their question...

Email Transcript 6/3/17

Hey [friend],

Sorry for the delayed response! [redacted personal statement].

Now, a few notes on your content brief question.

I guess first off, there’s definitely some baseline structure for content brief’s, but in my experience I’ve taken it case by case. I typically will tailor the plan based upon my review of the company’s current situation, resource capabilities, and goals. Below, I've made some notes related to how I've approached a new engagement with a company, a basic structure, channel and format options, references, and final thoughts.

My process for coming into a new company

Prepare initial 90-day plan based on my external analysis and research

Content Audit

Style

Structure

Cadence and consistency

SEO

Voice and tone

Personas

Analysis of what’s “worked and not worked”

Determine analytics baseline

Repurpose existing content into new formats (there’s always low hanging fruit, just have to know where to look)

Channels and format opportunities

Revise 90-day plan and start on Content Brief / Strategy

Basic Content Brief Outline

Map this to broader marketing and company goals.

Summary + Content mission statement

Audience / personas outlined

Plan

Categories / Topics / Keywords

Major pieces of content for [year]

Cadence

Channels

Calendar

Measurement and Optimization (Goals and Analytics)

References + Supporting Documents

B2B Channels

A few months ago at HackerOne, we brainstormed a lot of different channel options. We had some specific ones that were for our brand that aren't listed below but this list is pretty comprehensive. There will be new and emerging channels to always keep an eye on.

References

Final thoughts

Good content is worth paying for. Copywriting is king (read the Gary Halbert Letters). Can't step over dollars to pick up pennies. Creating a content farm of links and more links will get you somewhere and can get traffic, but not long term growth.

In B2B companies, it's not always about the almighty traffic and subsequent conversion funnel that follows. Emails are a huge currency in both consumer and b2b, however. If you have a sales force, content is often about supporting top of the funnel assets as well as filling in content across the buying cycle to help them close deals. It's hard to create a content plan that encompasses all those.

A company should focus on different things depending on their size and strategy. In general, Jason Lemkin’s advice is great: start off growth hacking, then add demand gen, then brand content once you get to >$10M ARR (this is skewed to SAAS startups). Joel Gascoigne, Hiten Shah, Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin, Noah Kagan: all these guys have made millions of dollars with their content marketing. They’re experts. Brian Dean too, he's the backlinko seo guy based in Germany - he's on point.

Hope this was helpful. Feel free to reach out to discuss further.

Take care!
Luke

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I recently got to go to Amsterdam for work. I stayed in the Jordaan neighborhood, went to The Next Web Conference, and worked with some awesome creatives to document the HackerOne h1-3120 live hacking event.

I recently got to go to Amsterdam for work. I stayed in the Jordaan neighborhood, went to The Next Web Conference, and worked with some awesome creatives to document the HackerOne h1-3120 live hacking event.

Though I didn't do a ton of touristy stuff, I did walk around a lot and jotted down some observations from my strolls through Amsterdam.

Canals upon canals upon canals.

They say Amsterdam is the Venice of the north. It's true. Yet, it's better than Venice because it's lived in, it's alive and it's more diverse.

There are, in fact, 165 Amsterdam canals that combine for a length of over 100 kilometers (about 60 miles).

While on a boat cruise down the Amstel River on a Thursday evening, a native Amsterdamian told me the canals were originally built for safety. Then they just continued to expand out. Not to mention the flood control.

Fun fact: Amsterdam got its name from the Amstel River.

Amsterdam is a great city to walk. I got around mostly through strolls along canals. But, keep in mind, you can't follow the same canal completely, otherwise, you'll practically do a 180 degree turn!

Cycling is THE preferred mode of transport.

Bicyclists are everywhere. And they don't stop for nothing. I witnessed at least three almost-mega-crashes. Like full on t-bone or sideswipe and even a head-on collision. Lots of squealing brakes and curses muttered under breaths.

Another observation, you won't go anywhere fast, but it never takes you that long to get to where you need to be. It's dense. I think they should consider banning cars in the city center. Would make it safer and less congested.

English is everywhere.

Spoken as well as signage. A recent study showed that the Netherlands has the largest percentage of English speakers in all of the countries in Europe. I believe it. This Wikipedia page says it's as high as 93% of Dutch people claim to speak English.

Taxi cars are Mercedes

Perhaps this is a Europe-thing. I rode in 3 different Uber's / Taxi's and they were all super nice cars.

I can get used to this.

Not a bad view - anywhere

Practically every cafe is "canal-side". Must be great to be a realtor, "stunning canal views in this 19th-century loft."

Wrangler is cool here.

Go figure. A conversation I had with the Head of Strategy at we are pi, an Amsterdam-based creative agency confirms this.

So all you Idaho cowboys, you'll be hip in Amsterdam strolling through canals in your Wrangler jeans.

Not really, but at least they'll think your jeans are cool.

Pancakes & Waffles

It's a culinary thing. Probably the most distinctive food-related observation I had.

Sadly, with my dairy allergy and gluten intolerance, I did not try any.

I did drink a fair bit of Heineken, however.

Smells like weed

You know how you smell nicotine cigarettes when walking down the street in most cities? Well, in Amsterdam it's pakalolo instead.

This about sums it up:

Pretty sure that list was made while on shrooms.

Can't wait to go back

Mushrooms aside, I can't wait to go back and explore more of this amazing city. Robyn and I are planning a Europe trip and the itinerary definitely includes a stop in Amsterdam.

Ja.

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My last post I teased a question: What are 2 skills, that if you focused on becoming excellent at them, would make the biggest impact in your life or career?

I began pondering this a while back when I was jogging around Diamond Head.

Writing
Writing improves your thinking. Writing saves you time… (write once, then point people to the blog when questioned about something). Writing (copywriting more specifically) is probably the fastest way to improve sales and is a universally applicable toolset. The best content marketers are excellent writers.

Interviewing
Asking better questions is universally applicable to life situations (from the quintessential networking reception, to the boardroom and life at home). It makes you a better person (wiser, smarter, more humble and empathetic). It is one of the quickest ways to build your network.

Read writing by some of the best authors / novelists (aim for 1 per month or 1 per quarter). I just finished Francis Coppola's The Godfather, and now reading some Hunter S. Thompson (that man's writing style agrees with me)

Marketing and Writing newsletters (copyblogger, kopywriting kourse, all of these.)

Write at least 500 words every day (simply keeping an appointment with yourself and clocking a daily metric keeps you disciplined and accountable).

How to Ask Better Questions

“That’s a great question.”

We’ve all said, or heard that phrase before. But what really connotes a great question?

Asking great questions starts at the research phase.

The Apostle Paul, the guy who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, said in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 that he “becomes all things to all people”).

Being engaging and interesting typically means that the person didn’t talk about themselves - they knew enough about what you care about to ask the right questions.

There's a story that John Maxwell recounts in his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership of Benjamin Disraeli and his political rival, William Gladstone.

Maxwell shares a poignant quote from a young lady who interacted with both men at a dinner party:

“After talking to Mr. Gladstone I left feeling like he was the most brilliant man in all of England. After talking to Mr. Disraeli I left feeling like I was the most brilliant woman in all of England.”

So I didn’t quite get 52 books read, which was a stretch goal. BUT, I did read all 66-books of the Bible (Robyn and I did a chronological read through of the Bible). So, if you include those books, then I read 110 books in 2016. :)

Towards the latter half of 2016, my reading and writing time got substituted by work and life prep research. So, I’m not too bummed that I didn’t get the 52. I could’ve fudged the numbers at the end of the year to make sure I got to the magical one book a week level, but why stress to do that when starting a new job and moving across an ocean?

I use the app Toggl to track my time while I’m working. I was using it to also track my personal reading time.

The graph above is the total amount of reading time I tracked in 2016

I would say I was diligent recording about 60% of my reading time (like there's no way I only read 1:56 hrs in May). I was especially bad at tracking my daily Bible devotions. So with 209 hours, I probably read closer to 400 hours. Putting that in perspective:

Last year, we all lived 8,784 hours (it was a leap year so 366*24).

My average sleep is right around 6.5 hours per night. So that means, I was awake, on average, 17.5 hours a day in 2016. That’s a total awake hours of 6,405.

Putting the abacus to work again, I can see that 6.2% of my awake time in 2016 was spent reading. That’s an average of 1.1 hours per day. Which is not that bad - but I thought it would have been higher.

Interesting to point out an article I like to revisit every so often and recently shared with a co-worker: The Tail End.

Tim Urban, the amazing author of the Wait But Why blog analyzed his life and calculated how many of certain events and activities that, as of December, 2015, he has left to experience.

One such calculation he did was estimating the number of books he has left to read in his lifetime:

Not counting Wait But Why research, I read about five books a year, so even though it feels like I’ll read an endless number of books in the future, I actually have to choose only 300 of all the books out there to read and accept that I’ll sign off for eternity without knowing what goes on in all the rest. - Tim Urban

As of right now, I have 149 books in my "To-Read" Category on Goodreads. Since I'm a younger chap than Tim, and I read 8x the amount of books than he says he does, I have a lot more books in my future. Theoretically, I could knock through those 149 books in less than 5-years.

But we'll see how I do there. Either way, I should definitely analyze which books I should be spending my time on (BTW: based on this data, you should never feel bad about not finishing a lame book or one that you're having a really hard time with. Life's too short for that and there are too many good books).

That's enough of that rant, and that's enough of 2016.

Time to look to the future!

My 2017 Goals

So what initiatives do I have for this year? Instead of doing one big one like last year, I thought through different life areas and came up with a list of lots of "smaller" goals. I've broken them out below for accountability:

Village Capital or "Vilcap", is a unique venture fund as they have a peer-driven investment approach. They create constructs of communities and processes that allow a dozen or so entrepreneurs to essentially compete over a set time period and grade each other on a pre-determined set of criteria.

Only the top two entrepreneurs get funding.

This model has been proven to reduce investor bias and showcase compelling returns.

In the latter part of our conversation, Ross tells a story about being at a dinner party at the US Ambassador to Italy’s house in Rome.

It get’s better - his dinner companions were Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Billy Zane who were in the area filming Zoolander 2 at the time.

The way the story goes, Ross is having a conversation with his fellow dinner guests, and Ben Stiller asked the inevitable question of “So what do you do”?

I’ll let you hear the rest from Ross’ own words…

So, I show up and I, started talking to people about what we’re doing. And Ben Stiller was very very nice and he was like “So what are you doing?” “How do you decide what companies to invest in?”

And I said, “Well, we actually don’t decide, the entrepreneurs themselves decide who’s good or who’s bad."

And Ben Stiller’s like, “You know, that’s brilliant. Because there are some people who are terrible actors, but they keep getting great parts because they’re awesome at auditions but like we all know they’re bad actors and they end up being bad in the movies,”

He continued…

“So we should do that for auditions! There are other people who are awesome but never do well in auditions…

Auditioning is not predictive of whether you’ll be good as an actor.”

The fun story continued with Ross describing Billy Zane’s fervor for the concept and his naming of what Ross does as “impact economics”.

But you'll have to listen to the podcast for those details.

I must say it was a joy to chat with Ross on the podcast and he’s got so much great insights and he and his team are doing an amazing work.

To snag a quote from a recent article Ross wrote for the Kauffman foundation:

“In the United States, venture capital investors pump an astonishing $50 billion a year into startups. Yet nearly 80 percent of that funding goes to just three U.S. states. Less than 5 percent goes to women founders, and less than 1 percent goes to people of color. Why aren’t we investing more in entrepreneurs, regardless of who has an idea or where they’re from?”

He’s got a great point.

To learn about how and why Ross started Village Capital, listen to the full interview below:

What’s better, Celsius or Fahrenheit? Left side of the road versus right side of the road?

In the last 2 ½ years, Robyn and I have traveled to 4 countries: Italy, Singapore, Japan, and Australia (technically 5 if you count a day trip to Malaysia).

And in my travels, I’ve made some observations about things that other countries do that are different than America.

It’s safe to say we in America have got some things right, and some things wrong.

Let's see how we stack up...

USA vs World: A scorecard of 8 different approaches to life

1. Metric System versus Imperial System

This one is a landslide... I can practically hear all my European friends moaning in angst.

And they would be justified.

The metric system is superior in a few very key ways:

Everything is divisible by 100. Logical, and easy.

Easy to figure out both distance AND measurement (none if this inches and miles, pounds and ounces business)

"Feet" as a measurement in the imperial system is my favorite.

Whose feet are measured? What size of shoe did they wear? How is this standard?

Some historians believe the original American foot measurement was based off of none other than George Washington's boot.

While that's not true (gotcha!), it' still ridiculous nonetheless.

So, clear victory for the world.

America: 0 | World: 1

2. Centigrade versus Fahrenheit

Alas, this one as well is not even close. I'm sorry my fellow Yanks, but we're gonna go down 0 - 2.

Let me tell you one reason why: 9/5

That's right. Anybody who works with data and has to convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius would like to strangle Daniel Fahrenheit.

But really, Celsius is better for one main reason:

Starts at 0 degrees for freezing and 100 degrees for boiling. Logical, easy to remember. Versus an obscure 32 degrees for freezing and what is the boiling point of water again? 212 degrees? Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

Some argue that Celsius has better scientific documentation.

I don't care much either way, but what I do care about is getting back those 6 years of elementary school where I had to do umpteen conversion calculations - and for what?!

Point goes to the World.

America: 0 | World: 2

3. Driving on the left side of the road vs Driving on the right side of the road

Oddly enough 3 out of the 4 countries we’ve been to drive on the left-hand side of the road.

We rented a car and drove in Australia and it wasn’t a big deal, you just make a mental switch and fall in line with traffic.

But seriously, I think it should just be standardized. I mean, why even bother with this whole left / right thing.

The fact is that most of the world drives on the right-hand side (66% actually). But in our scorecard, we’ll give this one to America, because we need the point.

And we did get it right after all (pun intended - get it, right-hand side of the road)!

Special note: Ever hear of “H-Day”? It’s September 3, 1967 and it’s infamous in Sweden for the day the entire country switched from driving on the left side to driving on the right side.

4. Traffic Lights versus Roundabout

Speeding ahead to number four, we stay on the roadways for this one.

First, let's look at some data.

Roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs or signals were previously used for traffic control, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)

The study quoted above was completed by the WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation).

There are several reasons they cite as to why roundabouts help reduce the likelihood and severity of collisions:

Low travel speeds – Drivers must slow down and yield to traffic before entering a roundabout. Speeds in the roundabout are typically between 15 and 20 miles per hour. The few collisions that occur in roundabouts are typically minor and cause few injuries since they occur at such low speeds.

No light to beat – Roundabouts are designed to promote a continuous, circular flow of traffic. Drivers need only yield to traffic before entering a roundabout; if there is no traffic in the roundabout, drivers are not required to stop. Because traffic is constantly flowing through the intersection, drivers don't have the incentive to speed up to try and "beat the light," like they might at a traditional intersection.

One-way travel – Roads entering a roundabout are gently curved to direct drivers into the intersection and help them travel counterclockwise around the roundabout. The curved roads and one-way travel around the roundabout eliminate the possibility for T-bone and head-on collisions.

Luckily, I think due to experiments like this we are seeing a movement of more roundabouts in the US of A.

Plus one more for the World.

America: 1 | World: 3

5.Tipping versus Not Tipping

After traveling in other countries, it’s absolutely liberating to not have to worry about tipping.

And I honestly don’t think the argument that tipping encourages better service holds water most of the time. Good service is relative and so is a good dining experience.

Not having to worry about tipping and just enjoying your meal with your companions without a tip-hungry server breathing down your neck... Yeah, I would classify that as a good dining experience.

So dear American restaurant owners - pay your servers better!

America: 1 | World: 4

6. Coins versus Small Bills

Don't worry my red white and blue friends, this one is all ours.

Most places I’ve traveled have lots of coins - for what? Is this the Byzantine empire?

It's called paper, it fits nicely in your wallet and the color is green by the way, not this fancy dancy multicolor funny money.

To sum up, coins are archaic, confusing and annoying to carry around.

Greenbacks FTW.

America: 2 | World: 4

7. Trains versus Planes

Trains are awesome. So convenient, relatively fast and usually work great.

Obviously for us in America, trains aren’t as convenient for long distance travel as they are in Europe for example as it's just too big. And we have things called planes.

Many major US cities have trains, but I don’t think we’ve designed them the best. Robyn could understand the Germany trains better than the NYC trains.

For that reason, the World gets this point.

America: 2 | World: 5

8. Restrooms vs No Restrooms

Try finding public restrooms anywhere near a cathedral in Italy...

Oh, and if you do find one, make sure you have one of those trusty coins because it aint free!

Let’s be honest, it’s nice to have bathrooms nearby at major venues and just in the general public.

Point goes to America.

America: 3 | World: 5

Scorecard says...

Slight edge to the World in this matchup.

I do want to say a disclaimer, that since my recent travels have taken me to only first world countries, this is skewed to observations in those locales.

In America, we may not have everything right, and for sure my scorecard has us missing the mark on the majority of metrics, but in spite of all this, I still believe America is the greatest country on earth (more on that in another post).

Wherever you stand, I know one thing’s for sure - I still love traveling and visiting new places!

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Today, Facebook announced they have rolled out a new product "Marketplace" with the tagline of "Buy and Sell With Your Local Community".

As many as 450 million people already use Facebook Groups as a community bazaar. Last year, Facebook even rolled out specific features to enable features like listing prices, marking items as available or sold, and easily viewing a catalog of previously sold items. - Wired

But this is a distinctly separate product with prominent display on the home screen of the world's most popular app.

I personally think this is a going to be bad product experience.

Here's why:

Reason #1: I like the anonymity craigslist offers

The number one reason I don’t want to buy things from strangers on Facebook, is I don’t want the person I'm buying a toaster oven from to have access to my facebook profile.

Perhaps this makes me a conservative old man.

Or it could be that it's legit weird to allow a perfect stranger to look at ALL your photos and most recent timeline posts.

I don't want them to have the opportunity to message me. I don't want them to know my middle name is Hubert. [1]

To sum up, I DONT WANT WEIRD STRANGERS TO HAVE ACCESS TO MY FACEBOOK PROFILE!

I just want to buy stuff cheap and get rid of my surfboard I never use.

Reason #2: They didn't make it a massively better experience

We already talked about what Facebook Marketplace DOES do (creeper alert), but let's talk for second about what it doesn't do:

It doesn’t facilitate payments

It doesn’t facilitate delivery

There’s no two-way rating system to encourage quality

They didn’t pre-fill with high quality sellers

It’s not algorithmically selecting the best items I might want to buy based upon available items and my profile or recent activity

It’s not allowing me to select items from ONLY my friends (which, if it did, I’d be way more inclined to at least try it!)

Tell me again why I should use it, Marky Mark?

Oh yeah, it's safer...

Reason #3: It is NOT a safer solution than Craigslist

In fact I think it opens the door up for MORE trolling and online creepers. Just play around with the app for a few minutes and you'll see - every seller can click straight through to their Facebook page.

And the argument that a scammer would have a hard time building up a personal profile on Facebook - well I just don’t buy it. And in reality, most consumers have become pretty savvy to know when there is a fishy scam afoot on the Craigslist.

Facebook, Craigslist, and no platform for that matter will get rid of the annoying, haggling strangers who don’t show up and then those that actually do show up and try and re-negotiate the already agreed upon price.

Those pesky low-ballers.

Reason #4: People like crappy designs they're used too

Facebook is for sure a much “prettier” product with mobile optimization.

But people are familiar and comfortable using Craigslist. It’s where the community goes to buy stuff, sell stuff and yes, do other stuff too but the core utility by the broader audience is a marketplace to find and sell stuff.

I think Facebook has to 10x the value of Marketplace to beat Craigslist at its own game.

So why is Facebook doing this?

Ummmm, ze advertizers.

Yes, that's right, you don't pay for Facebook - but advertisers do.

I have a hard time believing the whole Facebook user base was clamoring for this product.

As Wired magazine put it:

“If Facebook can transform itself into the place where people come to buy stuff—in addition to all the other things people come to Facebook for—well, that’s a great sell to Facebook advertisers."

A product for the customer (one who pays for the right to access the social graph), and not the user (one who uses the social graph).

What would it take for me to use marketplace?

For one, better stuff. :)

Also, if they addressed some of the product enhancements referenced in reason #2 above then I might consider it.

But let me ask you, have you ever had a "wow" experience buying or selling anything on Craigslist?

Like, a "this was so seamless and amazing" type of experience.

Asked another way, do you look forward to going onto Craigslist?

If you're like me you answered an emphatic NO to both those questions.

Why is that?

Because Craigslist is transactional - you're there to get something done: buy, sell, hire, etc.

As long as that's where the community goes to satisfy those needs, it will be hard for anybody to unseat the king.

Even Facebook.

I write all this knowing that Mark Zuckerberg will probably prove me wrong, but hey, maybe not...

Anybody use a Facebook phone lately?

Notes:

[1] Hubert is not my real middle name, what are you nuts? I would never tell you my middle name is a New Testament Bible name that starts with T and there's 2 books, and my namesake was mentored by Paul the Apostle. Nope, my lips are sealed.

Most programmers wish they could start a startup by just writing some brilliant code, pushing it to a server, and having users pay them lots of money. They'd prefer not to deal with tedious problems or get involved in messy ways with the real world. - PG

Basically, most of the really easy problems are already taken, so solve hard problems in big markets.

Doing hard things is good. You can make a great impact on the world with a successful startup.

Expect to fail. Be happy when you do.

Just learn and move on.

So what are you still doing reading this? Go work on your startup side project!

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Robert Cialdini wrote one of the most important books for marketers called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and it has sold over 3 million copies and been on best-seller lists and most-recommended resources for over three decades.

Thirty-two years after his magnum opus, Robert's written a new book called Pre-Suasion

Robert Cialdini wrote one of the most important books for marketers called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and it has sold over 3 million copies and been on best-seller lists and most-recommended resources for over three decades.

Here are some of my notes from their conversation that I jotted down last Saturday while on a flight back to Honolulu.

The seven aspects of influence:

Reciprocity– when someone buys you lunch or gives you a gift, naturally you want to return the favor. Influence talks about how the hare krishnas increased donations significantly by first giving people a flower.

Likability – one way is to embrace your products shortcomings, basically point out flaws and it provides the person a signal that you're trustworthy.

Consistency – requesting a favor of a person and then they subconsciously thnk that "oh, I am the type of person that does a favor for Mr. Tucker".

Social Proof – We see this every day in web products with the "5-star ratings", and "most popular" type recommendations at restaurants.

Authority – Impressive titles or accomplishments like "NYT Best Seller". This includes the commonly seen "Chef's Choice" gambit at restaurants.

Scarcity – "just 10 items left in stock!" and "It's the only car like it left on the lot".

Unity – We have certain things in common, I'm just like you because [insert affinity theme here].

Quick note on all this... these are powerful tools to be aware of, and employ when communicating your products value to your audience.

Integrity is of paramount importance.

The reality is, to build the best product, you have to understand the psychological triggers, biases, and motivations of your customers.

This comes through study, research, interviews, and testing.

Another reason to understand these persuasion techniques is for ourselves as consumers - so we know when they're being deployed against us.

So, with that, enjoy reading my notes below (all 809 words! :). I also encourage you to listen and take your own notes as well, for I'm sure I missed some great stuff!

Persuasion Tidbits and Conversation Nuggets from Robert Cialdini and James Altucher:

Put pictures of people who are characteristic of the audience you are writing for behind your computer when you're writing, it will make you more empathetic and focused on your reader.

In a job interview, ask them "why did you bring me in today?" They'll then say nice things about you and convince themselves of your worth.

Don't add multiple persuasion tactics, if it's overt and people see them as devices then it's a negative result.

Studies show, personalized gifts / customized are best.

... Even more powerful is when you align your gift with their current set of circumstances.

How to gain influence in a negotiation: Ask for advice, recognize they're smart.

Give people a reputation to live up to.

People who write down what time they were going to come to the doctor, were more likely to show up to their appointment than those that just checked a box.

Use positive reinforcement: "95% of people show up to their appointments" is proven more effective then saying "5% of people don't show up, so don't be like them and cost us money".

You are giving them something to aspire too and play to unity and inclusiveness to be like the other 95 people, not the 5.

Social proof incredibly important in selling...
shows the shortcut ‘someone else did the research, etc.’

Two must haves:

Authority (chef's choice / staff picks)

Social proof (most popular / NYT best seller)

Pre suasion is creating an environment where people are more likely to buy...

Study of men who asked random women for their phone number on the street. They got a significantly better reply when they asked the girl when they were standing in front of a flower shop.

The environment impacts our decision-making lense.

Put authority information at the top of your ad or web page! Use imagery associated with authority.

[sidenote: Robert tells a crazy story in the "Authority" chapter of Influence about the study that was done with nurses submitting to a "doctor" authority title when a stranger called the hospital and barked instructions to them to give a certain patient a potentially lethal dose of a drug - despite the ridiciulousness of the scenario, 95% of the nurses did what the random man on the phone told them to do.]

Warren Buffet does this in his annual letter to shareholders with incredible mastery. It's disarming every time... "We made this mistake".. I believe the next thing he says to me - and that's where he puts the strength of the last year.

Be really forthcoming with people, not trying to maintain superiority. Achieves likability and trustworthiness.

Warren Buffet stated, "This is what I have told my family" and he goes on to say, "Believe in Berkshire."

And I do.

Sales or negotiating tip: "Let me tell you what I would say to you if you were my brother"...

Another version of unity is friends. In a negotiation scenario say, "let's forget we're doing a transaction, friend to friend, this is what I would do..."

Family though is more powerful than friends. It plays on the most important recognizable bond of unity.

Fear versus greed... Fear wins out.

People are much more averse to loss than winning.

"I would not stay up all of one night to make $100; but I would stay up all of seven nights to keep from losing it." - Chauncey Depew

People will fight much harder to avoid losing something they already own than to gain something of greater value that they do not own.

In conditions of uncertainty, when people are unsure or unfamiliar or feel unprotected... They're more concerned about losing out.

Sales copy brainstorming... Things are changing, there's never been a time like this currently on the planet. So much information, stimulus saturated, things are always in flux.... We have particular ways to deal with this uncertainty. They are unique to our analysis and approach and we would hate for you to not take advantage of these things. Don't forgo our unique opportunity.

Long sales letters better than short - an authority technique.

PreSuasion, 7 influences : how to decide what to do?

Look at the situation, know what is your strength? The feature of your message that is most wise For the person to use

Before you send the message, send them some sort of queue with authority ... Do it with an adage at the top of your email or something...

Expertise developed over time... Choose a saying that will be your strength

What is your strength? Optimize attention to it (pre suasion, like the email quote example) and then you highlight that in your message

Decide which of the 7 persuasion factors are right to use

Be scrupulously honest and don't be like Nicky, Will Smith's conman character in the movie Focus: